Presentation from Valtech Agile Edge event April 09 London. Discusses measurement and metrics for management of Agile software development projects.

1. Measuring for Accountability
Al Goerner
Agile Edge - UK
30 April 2008

2. Metrics for Many Purposes
Keep metrics diagnostic
and constructive! Expectation Business
Analysts
Management
Where are we? Project Sponsor
& Stakeholders
Are we on track?
Are in trouble? Why?
What can we improve?
Direction and
“Tell me how you will measure me, Project Manager
Risk/Issue
and I will tell you how I will behave.” Motivation
- Goldratt Management
Punitive metrics
are self-defeating! Development
Team
Test Team
#2

3. Agile Metric Objectives … Distilled
Outcomes-Oriented
Measures value delivered to the customer, not effort consumed.
Motivated
Intended to address relevant questions, not random speculations.
Organic
Based on readily available data – from your current processes.
Diagnostic
Helps determine what is going wrong and what to do about it.
Pattern-based
Founded on regular, reasonable, teachable patterns
#3

4. Metrics
Iteration-level Release-level Portfolio-level Enterprise
(day-to-day) (iteration-to-iteration) (relse-to-relse, prod-to-prod) (qtr-to-qtr, year-to-year)
Pacing & Flow Progress & Fitness Value & Opportunity Agility & Vitality
Executive & Line Metrics are
Management
Using Resources Effectively! NOT Evil!
LoB Product Owner If You do
& Mgmt.
Build the Right Thing! them Right,
Metrics are
Practical
Development Team Start w/ Basics
Self-Defense!
Build the Thing Right! Then, Build Up
If You Don’t Measure It, You Don’t Understand It.
4

5. Essential Release-level
Project Mgmt. Questions
Essential Progress Questions
Is this release on-time?
Is this release healthy?
Essential Quality Questions
Is this release likely to be fit-for-release when it is
ready-for-release?
Is this project (in general) and this release (in
particular) effectively satisfying our customer’s
needs?
Ultimate Diagnostic Question
What can be done to get this project back on-track?
#5

6. Release Progress
120.0
112
110.0
100.0 94
90.0
80.0 75
68
70.0
Units of Work
65
63
60.0
52
50 51
47 47 48 48
50.0 46
43 43
40
38
40.0
42 33
40 40
37 38 37 37 38 29
36 36 36
30.0 33 34 24
30 31
27 28 20
26
20.0 15
11
10.0 6 5.25 5.75 4.75 5.25 4.75 6
3 2.5 3.75
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0.0 3 3 3.5 3.5 4
1 1.5 0.5 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Iteration #
Ideal Burndown Cone - Low Ideal Burndown Cone - High All-Categories Scope Elements Value-Categories Scope Elements
Planned Cumulative Scope Expansion Planned Value Scope Expansion All-Categories Work Remaining Value-Categories Work Remaining
#6
All-Categories Weighted Velocity Value-Categories Weighted Velocity Projected Burndown

7. Workqueue/Backlog Breakout
120
100
4
80
2 22
13
Units of Work
10
60 6 8
2 3 6
2 2 5
2 4 5
4 4
1 14 14
12 13 13
40 12
12
12
12
20 37
34 35 35 35 36
31
26 28
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Iteration #
Feature Feature Requirements Committed Technical Special (Level-2) Risk/Issue Mgmt.
#7 Requests Change Requests Clarifications Defect Repairs Debt Tests Tasks

8. 60 120.0%
117%
50 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100.0%
93% 94%
92%
89% 88%
40 80% 80.0%
78%
67%
30 Value Scope 60.0%
20 40.0%
Level-1 Accepted
28.9% 29.5%
26.6% 27.2% 27.7% 27.7%
24.9% 12
22.0% 23.1%
10 20.0%
Level-2 Accepted
6 12%
10% 10%
9% 9% 8%
2
2% 1
0 0%
0 0%
0 0 0 0 0.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Value Scope Level-1 Accepted Level-2 Accepted
Outstanding Technical Debt Feature Churn Requirements Churn
#8 Planning Stability Regression Stability

9. Metrics
Iteration-level Release-level Portfolio-level Enterprise
(day-to-day) (iteration-to-iteration) (relse-to-relse, prod-to-prod) (qtr-to-qtr, year-to-year)
Pacing & Flow Progress & Fitness Value & Opportunity Agility & Vitality
Executive & Line Metrics are
Management
Using Resources Effectively! NOT Evil!
LoB Product Owner If You do
& Mgmt.
Build the Right Thing! them Right,
Metrics are
Practical
Development Team Start w/ Basics
Self-Defense!
Build the Thing Right! Then, Build Up
If You Don’t Measure It, You Don’t Understand It.
9

10. Management & Line-of-Business
Dashboard Tiles
Support at-a-glance
summary with drill-through.
Same 4 essential questions,
at a higher level, plus …
“How much do I have to worry
about this project?” – Risk
“Are we burning budget at a
sustainable rate?” – Costs
“Does this project still make
good business sense?” – Margin
or ROI
“Does this project support further
business or other initiatives
within the company?” –
Opportunity or Program Goals
#10 Dell Agile Summit
January 24, 2007

11. 10 Feature 4, 5.00
9
8 Feature 3, 5.39
7 Feature 2, 3.16
6
Severity of Risk
5 Chg. Request 1, 10.30
4 Feature 1, 6.71
3
Which risks really *need*
2
to be addressed *now*?
1 Chg. Request 2, 9.06
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Probability of Occurence of Risk
#11

12. Three Things to Do Now…

13. Thank you for attending!
Questions???
Contacts:
Al Goerner Jonathan Cook
Principal Emterprise Consultant Business Development, United Kingdom
al.goerner@valtech.com jonathan.cooke@valtech.com
+01 214 724 7240 +44 7748638031